LENS; Triumphs and Defeats Of Commuting

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Published: April 8, 2012

To navigate New York's mass transit is to experience all of this competitive city's struggles, pleasures and pains, only transposed underground, into the subterranean arena otherwise known as a train station. Faced with sprints, crowded staircases and down-to-the-minute departure times, the successful urban traveler must display an agility and athleticism akin to a gladiator's.

And in an environment where seconds count, there are glorious triumphs and heartbreaking defeats.

Linger on the train platforms in Grand Central Terminal and observe the final moments before commuter trains slam shut their doors and depart for the evening. In the wake of the vanishing final car inevitably stand a few gasping, wheezing, anguished travelers, watching as their family dinners and evening social plans recede into the dark. Moments earlier, and they might have been blissfully on their way.

Yet these agonies co-exist in great proximity with happier emotions: the ecstasy of the last-minute catch, the joy of a serendipitous connection. Relief and furtive pleasure can be glimpsed in the eyes of the fleet commuter who slips through the closing doors just as a train pushes off for home.

Here is a snapshot of that daily drama, its small tragedies and accidental comedies captured raw, be it from railroad-riders at Pennsylvania Station or straphangers in the subway. Printed on the ceiling of a corridor inside the Times Square subway station is a poem, titled ''A Commuter's Lament, or a Close Shave.'' It is seen by tens of thousands of people who traverse the passageway every day. The final stanza reads:

Why bother?
Why the pain?
Just go home
Do it again.

Richard Perry is a staff photographer for The New York Times. Some of the photographs from this slide show will appear in the Metropolitan section on Sunday.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTOS: TIME TO SPARE: A traveler who made a late-night Long Island Rail Road train at Pennsylvania Station appeared to be waiting for someone. Left, a commuter at Grand Central Terminal had time to kill.; THE CHASE: Above, commuters dashing down the stairs at Pennsylvania Station to catch a Long Island Rail Road train. Left, a straphanger enduring a moment of defeat as the shuttle train at the Times Square station prepared to depart for Grand Central without her. Below, a traveler sprinting to catch a New Jersey Transit train at Penn Station.; SPRINTING: Commuters trying to become riders on the Times Square shuttle. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD PERRY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)